Sadhana Kitchen

Eating and Living Healthy

Chobani Yogurt Dressing Broccoli Salad – A Healthy Recipe

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Don’t worry your eyes are not deceiving you I am back postings for a second day in row! I have a delicious recipe to share with you – Chobani Yogurt Dressing Broccoli Salad.

I had a meal for dinner last night which was glorious for the taste buds simple but so so good. Before I get to that I’ll tell you a little bit about my Monday……
I started the day taking my fitness group for a seafront and cliff run. Total killer but a great way to start the day plus we were all finished by 7am!

I had more clients in the morning and early afternoon, I squeezed in a yummy lunch between clients. The perfect mix of protein and fat, I love avocado and eggs!

I trained another client on skype (workout no.2) then had another couple of clients before making dinner! A very busy Monday but I love it that way especially when I am training clients they brighten up my day : )

Now its time to talk about my fabulous dinner from last night which I would happily eat any time of the day, breakfast, lunch or dinner this would slip down very easily!

My recipe was inspired by the guys at Chobani – they are running a competition to make a brunch recipe and this yumminess is what I came up with. This meal is really refreshing and perfect for the summer months (if we could get some!) it could be made lighter by having a smaller piece of chicken or maybe having some boiled eggs with it anyway lets get to how I made it and what went in it!

Chobani Yogurt Dressing Broccoli Salad – A Simple and Healthy Recipe

Chobani Yogurt Dressing Broccoli Salad

Chobani Yogurt Dressing Broccoli Salad

The Chicken 
I oven baked the chicken breasts in a little olive oil, dried garlic, turmeric and mixed herbs.
I baked a big batch for about 40 minutes but if you were cooking 1 or 2 they would take 30 minutes depending on size.

Yogurt Dressed Broccoli Salad

You need: 1 head of broccoli, 1 cup plain chobani, 1 small red onion, good handful of fresh basil, half a small lemon and freshly ground black pepper, pine nuts

To make: cut the broccoli head into florets and lightly steam for 2 minutes (it should still be firm) before putting it in cold water to cool it and keep its bright green colour. In a bowl mix 1 cup of plain Chobani, diced red onion and basil. Squeeze half a small lemon over the mix and add some black pepper, as much as you like then mix again. Put broccoli in a large mixing bowl then pour the yogurt mix over the top and coat the florets. Toast some pine nuts in a dry frying pan and sprinkle on top.

This was just so good, I can’t recommend you try it enough. The yogurt made the broccoli salad so fresh not like heavy mayo. It went really well with the chicken too an all round hit! Dale had nothing but praise for this meal which means it must have been good!

I hope you get a chance to make this and enjoy it! I have got to get ready for my next client, see you soon on Sadhana Kitchen

Chobani Yogurt Dressing Broccoli Salad – A Simple and Healthy Recipe

4 Easy Throw Together Meals

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Hello peeps, welcome back to Sadhana Kitchen! Here we are again, are you having a good week so far? I definitely am its been all go this side of the screen just the way I like it! Today I was up early to get my walk in before my first client, thankfully the sunshine has come out to play and my walk along the seafront was gorgeous start to the day ;))

This week I have been enjoying some really tasty throw together meals, they are easy to make and easy to eat! I think easy meals are my favourite, don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a good cook/bake session but the week nights I want something I can cook up without too much fuss that will be filling enough for the man and tasty of course! I have four meals here to share with you 3 of which include bacon…I like to make my ingredients last through a few meals to cut down on cost!

#1 Bacon and Egg Scramble with Salad

Bacon and Egg Scramble with Salad

Ingredients:
(serves 1)

2 rashers of streaky bacon
2 eggs
5 mushrooms
salt and pepper
choice of salad

Method:

Cut the bacon up into strips and put in a non-stick frying pan over a low heat. (Streaky bacon has enough fat that you don’t need to use any other in this dish). While the bacon cooks slice up the mushrooms, once the bacon starts to brown add mushrooms and turn up the heat a little. When you think the bacon is crispy enough add the two eggs and stir until cooked. Once cooked add the salt and pepper to your preference.

Serve with salad and of course a dollop of ketchup!

#2 Savoury Vegetable Rice Topped with Crispy Bacon

Savoury Vegetable Rice Topped with Crispy Bacon

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

150g Basmati Rice, white or brown
1 small courgette
1 small red pointy pepper
1 small red onion
2 Tbsp red pesto
salt and pepper
2 rashers streaky bacon

Method:

Cook the rice to packet instructions. While the rice cooks, cut the bacon into thin strips and place in a non-stick pan over a low heat to cook. Chop the courgette, pepper and onion and place in a large mixing bowl, add the pesto and stir. Once the rice is cooked wash under the tap then add to veggies and pesto, stir again. When the bacon is crispy enough for you serve up rice then top with crispy bacon.

#3 Savoury Chickpea and Bacon Rice with Steamed BroccoilSavoury Chickpea and Bacon Rice with Steamed Broccoil

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

100g basmati rice, white or brown
1 can chickpeas, drained and washed
4 rashers streaky bacon
1 small red onion
2 Tbsp red pesto
1 small head broccoli

Method:

Cook the rice to packet instructions. While the rice cooks cut up bacon into strips and onion then add to a non stick pan, cook 3-4 minutes then add chickpeas and pesto. Cut broccoli and steam for 5-6 minutes depending on size of florets. Once rice is cooked drain and rinse then add to bacon and chickpeas. Combine the lot then serve with steamed broccoli.

#4 Tuna and Vegetable Quinoa with Roasted Garam Masala Cauliflower

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

Quinoa:
100g quinoa
1 can tuna
1 red pointy pepper
1 small courgette
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Udo’s Oil
salt and pepper

Cauliflower:
1 small head of cauliflower
1 Tbsp garam masala powder
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Tuna and Vegetable Quinoa with Roasted Garam Masala Cauliflower

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180. Chop cauliflower and place in a baking pan, cover with oil, garam masala, salt and pepper then place in the oven to bake for 20 mins, stirring every 5 minutes.

Cook quinoa to packets instructions, while it boils chop courgette and pepper then add to a mixing bowl also add the tuna, oil paprika, vinegar and mustard seeds, mix well. Once the quinoa is cooked and drained add to tuna mix and stir until all combined. The cauliflower should be cooked by now so serve it all up and enjoy!

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All of these meals as you can see are really easy to make and use similar ingredients which helps with the shopping budget. They are also pretty large servings if like me you live you a guy who comes home hungry! If not any of them could be used as lunch the next day another way to save money!

I hope these meals have given you some ideas of how you can eat healthy tasty food that can be made quickly and doesn’t break the bank!

My 7 Useful Tips for Using Slow Cooker

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I have been using a slow cooker a lot more over the past year, and I really enjoy it. Slow cookers can be very helpful in allowing you to prepare a good meal even on an extra busy day. They are very energy efficient, too. I have learned several things about using slow cookers. Here are some tips:

tips for using slow cooker

Some useful tips for using slow cooker

1. Fill your slow cooker at least half full for the best cooking results. Food tends to overcook if the pot is less than half full.

2. You can use cheaper cuts of meat in a slow cooker. The slow, moist cooking method results in tender meat, even from tougher cuts. I’m not saying you can cook a brick in there, but it doesn’t have to be prime rib, either.

3. Remember that liquids do not “cook down” in a slow cooker, so don’t add too much liquid.

4. One hour on high equals 2 hours on low. You can use this tip to adjust your cooking time. For example, if I put a meal in the cooker at 11:00, and I want to have supper at 6:00, I have 7 hours of cooking time. If the recipe calls for 8 hours on low, I would cook it for one hour on high, then 6 hours on low.

5. You can overcook food in the slow cooker. I have rarely found that anything actually needs to cook all day, as some recipes recommend. You will just have to experiment with your recipes and your slow cooker to see how long they really need. I have been told that newer cookers are hotter than older ones, so that may account for the discrepancy in recommended cooking times.

6. Do not lift the lid…at least not very often! Lifting the lid allows the heat to escape, and it takes a slow cooker about 20 minutes to recover. However, I would rather lift the lid occasionally than overcook my food. I actually burned ham in a slow cooker once by cooking it according to a recipe’s recommended time and not checking it. I quickly lift the lid and check to avoid this problem, but usually only once or twice. (And I fuss at anyone else who lifts my lid!)

7. Use slow cooker liners for easy clean up. I buy the Reynolds slow cooker liners, and they are wonderful. I get them for around $2 for a box of 4. The time and soaking water that I save is worth the 50 cents per meal to me.

I’m sure there are many other things that more experienced cooks would think of, but these are a few things that have helped me. If you don’t use a slow cooker much, I suggest giving it a try. After you accumulate some good recipes, you’ll be hooked!

Benefits of Getting Enough Sleep

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Getting enough sleep play a very important key in living healthy life. In this article, let’s talk about benefits of getting a good sleep.

Improve your memory

According to Daniel Margoliash, a member of the sleep research team, getting enough sleep has three effects. It helps to improves memory, reduces depressed and restore memory.

During sleep, the mind is busy. And while sleeping, you can enhance your memory andpractice the skills that you have learned during the day. When you try to learn something, physical or mental, you need to practice again. So that is reason why every time you wake up to continue the lessons you may feel remember longer.

Live longer

Sleep extra one hour reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke for at least six weeks. A recent study from Harvard showed that those who slept 7 hours and have extra a short sleep about one hour will get significant progress on cardiovascular. The researchers also said that sleep affects the ability to cope with stress hormones.

Therefore, getting enough sleep not only prolongs survival for us but also makes vivid life and more effective.

Benefits of Getting Enough Sleep

Improve your focus

According to research from the University of Notre Dame (USA), the nap will absorb information faster and it is the best way to perform preparation for an exam or a presentation. On the other hand, teenager age, physical and mental demands greater sleep than age has developed so that sleep plays an important role. Get enough sleep will help you raise the level of the lecture focuses on the morning. Avoid sleeping late, the brain will has time to work and study better.

Having a healthy weight

If you are thinking about a diet to lose weight, then you can plan to go to bed earlier than 1 hour. Researchers at the Chicago university discovered that dieters that adequate sleep will also reduce 56 percent of weight more than those who diet without enough sleep.

The lack of sleep increases the ghrelin hormone (appetite stimulant) than those who sleep 8 hours each day. They also tend to eat a lot of sweets and starches such as candy or noodles, cold rice in the insomnia night.

However, during sleep, the body will secrete a hormone to reduce appetite, which helps your body maintain a healthy weight.

Reduce stress

When your sleep is taken away, the stress will be very fast attack you. So, make sure you get enough sleep from 7 to 8 hours a night. On the other hand, when in sleep state, concentrations of cholesterol in the blood is regulated better, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Thus, getting enough sleep can improve health and help you reduce stress.

Gardening in winter: why it’s a good time to start

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We all know the feeling this time of year. Walking out the door of a morning to the realization that yes, it is well and truly winter. Even though your plants aren’t doing much in terms of growth, it does not mean that you as a gardener should hibernate. Many things can be done in Winter, so that you can get the most out of your garden in Spring and Summer. Winter is ideal to prepare you garden, and to catch up on the tasks you have been putting off. Use the time to add new additions to your garden, perhaps some new plants, an installation or a transplant – be creative!

Gardening in winter

So where to start?

Even though autumn is the best time for planting, winter is nearly just as favorable. The main contributors to successful planting are watering and soil aeration. A plant going from a pot (that gets watered every day and has good soil aeration) into garden soil that may be dry for extended periods of time, and be compacted with low aeration, may cause severe stress to the plant. It is true that plants require less water in winter because they are not actively growing, but the rule is – LESS water, not NO water. To improve soil aeration, tilling is a good way to go. All that is often needed is to dig an oversized hole for the new plants, and the loose soil will aerate the roots.

Winter is also the best time for you to get on top of your weeds. Like other plants, their growth slows and they wait for rain and warmer weather to flower and set seeds. If you can weed your garden on a regular basis in winter then half the battle is won. For example, onion weed is a very difficult weed to control as it has a bulb that is usually quite deep in the ground. In spring this bulb splits and divides. If you start weeding in winter and pull them out (along with the bulb) with the help of a hand weeder, then you stop them in their tracks. Another trick, not organic, but for those of us who like to use chemicals as sparingly as possible, is to use a paint brush to paint the leaf of a weed you would like to get rid of. By using this method you don’t contaminate the soil, or risk spraying any other plant by mistake. Another trick to control weeds and moss in your paver is to spray the pavers with white vinegar.

After weeding the next task is mulching. Mulching is recognized as the best thing you can do in your garden to improve the health of your trees and shrubs, you keep the soil cool in summer and prevent evaporation after rain. For best results, your mulch must be composed of a mix of leaf and small twigs. Imagine what you would find on the floor of a forest – leaves, small branches and beneath it all a dark rich compost. Well that is exactly what you should try and achieve in your garden. Don’t bin your leaves in autumn, just throw them on your garden beds. The leaves of you deciduous trees are the best as they are usually thin and break down rapidly which adds organic matter to your soil. Little critters, worms and fungi bring your soil to life and your plants will thrive. If you need to buy mulch then here are a couple of recommendations: Pea straw, lucern, and sugar cane are great alternatives to standard straw for your vegie garden or for garden beds with flowering plants and ornamentals. These mulches break down quickly and need toping up often but will add a lot more organic matter to your soil than larger mulches. For your other garden beds with trees, shrubs, or large areas get tea tree mulch or leaf mulch. Tea-tree mulch can be bought from most nurseries and leaf mulch delivered from most landscapes suppliers. Avoid pine bark as it usually draws nutrients and can mess with the chemical balance of your soils.

Repotting is also best done this time of year. In winter, the roots of your plants go partially or totally dormant which allows you to work on them without stressing your plant too much. When repotting, prune up to 20% of your roots and replace most of your potting mix, once spring comes around your plant will have root space to develop and grow.

Make sure your irrigation is flushed and working properly for summer as if anything goes wrong with your irrigation in summer it will be less forgiving than in winter.

Give a prune to your deciduous trees and vines. With no leaves it is easier to see their structure and therefore modify it. Remember that only 10% of the total of the plant is the recommended amount for pruning for most trees but some will require or tolerate much more. Once you have pruned your fruit trees and roses it is also a good idea to give them a lime sulfur spray. This gives them a good clean and reduces the chances of them getting pest attacks in summer. When spraying your plants with soap strays of lime sulfur make sure you don’t forget to spray the branches and trunk as it is there that pest insects lay their eggs.

And finally, Take a few hours to clean, sharpen maybe oil and service your tools so that they ready to be used come spring time.

So, as you can see, there are many things that can be done in your garden during winter. And while there seems to be little plant activity at this time, it is actually one of the best times of the year to get your hands dirty. So put your gardening gloves on, grab a coat and get started on the tasks that will see an exceptional garden flourish in the warmer months.

Thank you for stopping by, you can read more at Sadhana Kitchen

Building a more stable connection with the Earth

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Sthira-sukham asanam (Yoga Sutra II.46)
The connection to the Earth should be steady and joyful

In this Yoga Sutra, we are told that our connection to the Earth should be steady and joyful. Sthira means steady or stable; sukham means joyful, centred; asana is the seat or connection to the Earth. It is the term used to describe the physical yoga practice of taking different shapes with the body but also can be taken in the broader sense of our interactions with the planet itself and all beings we share it with.

Around 10,000 years ago humans began the great agricultural project, which has brought us to the critical juncture we find ourselves in today. We started to domesticate animals and grow crops. We stopped following herd animals and found ways to corral control them. We began to shape and control and change nature to suit our desires. What we didn’t understand is that we humans began to domesticate ourselves along with the animals we came to call livestock. We slowly became more and more disconnected with the flow and flux of nature by separating ourselves from its laws. We moved into the era of the ego and individuation by severing ourselves from the wild.

As we slowly became more and more separate from nature, the pace of destruction increased. We built systems that mean we don’t have to face just how unstable and unjoyful our connection with the Earth has become. We don’t have to kill the animals that make their way to our plates, we don’t have to cut down the trees and clearfell the rainforests that become our coffee cups, napkins, toilet paper and office paper, we don’t have to destroy the oceans ourselves in order to continue consuming the life that comes from it, we don’t have to see how coal gets out of the ground and what happens when it transforms into our energy. However, we do have to live with the consequences.

If humans have any hope of not just surviving on this planet, but thriving, we need to find ways to reconnect what is broken in us. To dismantle the ego-system we have built and take our place in the eco-system. Yoga is becoming increasingly popular in our culture and I believe it is due to our desire to reconnect, to awaken and become conscious, to begin to build a more mutually beneficial relationship to the Earth; to begin to learn, through our bodies, and the ground beneath our feet, how to give and, in so doing, receive. We take the shapes of birds, lizards, snakes, trees, mountains and take the time to pause and be present and build our awareness and consciousness.

Sadhana is a Sanskrit word which means conscious spiritual practice. This might be preparing delicious, healthy, whole, cruelty-free food, as an offering to the Earth, or it could be a daily asana or meditation practice, or perhaps daily prayer to the Divine.

Whatever it may be, its purpose is to ground and connect us. The challenging part is mustering the discipline to do it every single day, so it’s best to make it something achievable. At the moment part of my daily sadhana is to spend some time outside, observing the life around me and taking a seat in the flow of nature. Sometimes this involves a long outdoor asana practice in a park. Sometimes it simply involves standing outside and watching the birds fight and feed and sing and play.

We are each responsible for building the kind of Earth we want to see through our actions. If we can take time out of each day to plug back in to nature, to the present moment and conscious awareness, we will be in a better position to carry that consciousness over into our lives and create a more stable and joyful connection to the Earth. To take our role as healers, of ourselves and then the planet we live on.

Love, Sadhana Kitchen